U.S. Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) attends the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on August 30, 2012 in Tampa, Florida. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was nominated as the Republican presidential candidate during the RNC which will conclude today. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(USA TODAY) -- Former senator Scott Brown will not run for the seat of departing
Sen. John Kerry in Massachusetts, saying Friday he was unsure "of
returning to a Congress even more partisan than the one I left."
The decision by Brown, a moderate Republican, means Democrats now have a better chance of keeping the Massachusetts seat.
Brown
was defeated in November by Democrat Elizabeth Warren, in the nation's
most expensive Senate race. Democrats had made Brown a top target since
he was the surprise winner of a 2010 race to replace Democrat Edward
Kennedy, who died the previous summer.
Kerry will step down
Friday afternoon and take his oath as secretary of State, replacing
Hillary Rodham Clinton as the nation's top diplomat.
Brown
said he gave "serious thought" to running, but it would have been his
third Senate race in four years. If he won the June 25 special election,
Brown would have to run again in 2014 for his own term.
Massachusetts
Gov. Deval Patrick has already appointed William "Mo" Cowan, a lawyer
and his former chief of staff, to be the interim senator until voters
pick a new senator. Primaries will be held April 30.
Democratic Reps. Ed Markey and Stephen Lynch have already declared their Senate candidacies.
The Senate GOP campaign committee vowed Republicans will be competitive. "As
the Democratic primary ... turns uglier and nastier each day, the
Massachusetts special election provides a real pick-up opportunity for
Republicans, and we intend on defeating whichever career politician
limps through," said Rob Collins, executive director of the National
Republican Senatorial Committee.
Brown was a
little-known state senator when he ran for the U.S. Senate after
Kennedy's death. He defeated Democrat Martha Coakley, the state's
attorney general, who ran what many people believed was a lackluster
campaign in 2010.
In his statement, Brown suggested
he will continue in public service -- but made no mention of whether he
will run for governor next year. Serving in Congress, he said, is "not
the only way for me to advance the ideals and causes that matter most to
me."
While Massachusetts consistently votes
Democratic in presidential elections, it doesn't always do the same in
governor's races. Three Republicans -- William Weld, Paul Cellucci and
Mitt Romney -- were elected governors from 1990 to 2006.
Catalina Camia, USA TODAY